Are hospitals producing quality care efficiently? An analysis using Dynamic Network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

This paper examines efficiency of producing quality in hospitals between 2009 and 2013 using Dynamic Network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the hospital characteristics that contribute to this efficiency. Dynamic Network DEA was used to compute efficiency scores for hospital sub-divisions i.e. medical/surgical care (patient visits, surgeries and discharges) and quality. Pearson's correlation test was performed to assess if there are trade-offs or synergies between the efficiency of producing quality and efficiency of producing medical/surgical care. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to determine hospital and market characteristics that contribute to efficiency in production of quality outputs. Efficiency of quality production improved significantly between 2009 and 2013 with no trade-off between efficiency of producing quality outputs and efficiency of producing medical care. Urban and teaching hospitals were less likely to improve efficiency of quality production.